Police motorway patrols get civilian back-up

CIVILIAN back-up teams are to patrol the motorway network in Glasgow so that police can concentrate on other duties, it was announced yesterday.

Two vans, each with crew of two, will cruise motorways in the city with the aim of reducing delays and speeding up the time it takes to clear the roadway after incidents.

The move was announced by Cathy Jamieson, the justice minister, who said the six-month trial scheme would start in May.

The crews will be employees of the road maintenance company Amey and their vans will carry cones, road signs and other equipment.

According to the Scottish Executive, the motorway teams’ tasks would involve much of the clearing-up work at present carried out by police in the aftermath of incidents. This should enable the police to move on more quickly to other tasks.

Ms Jamieson said: "We must ensure that, wherever possible, police officers are not diverted away from their core frontline duties, including tackling crime on our roads."

She said of pilot scheme: "Run in partnership with the police and Amey, it will involve using trained Amey staff in incident support vehicles to reduce the time it takes to clear incidents.

"This will help minimise delays to the public and free up more police time to concentrate on tackling road crime and improving road safety in our communities."

Chief Inspector Angus McPhail, the deputy head of Strathclyde Police’s road policing department, said that his force welcomed the scheme.

"The transfer of certain ancillary functions will also enable the force to further develop our proactive policing strategy on the trunk road network and therefore impact positively on the detection and deterrence of criminal activity," he said.